SOMERSET — An elementary school and possibly the high school will be losing their principals, as changes at the top continue.

Chace Street School Principal Thomas Gastall is leaving his job after one year to return as principal of Westport Elementary School, the job he held the two previous years. He starts the job July 1.

On Thursday night, Somerset Berkley Regional High School Principal Jahmal Mosley was one of four finalist candidates being interviewed for principal of Reading Memorial High School.

Mosley, completing his third year as principal of the high school, is also one of four finalists for superintendent for the Greenfield school district, according to The Recorder newspaper in Greenfield.

Gastall, a Somerset resident and the town’s newest principal, said the reduction from four elementary schools to three was the major factor in his leaving.

“I never felt comfortable with the fact I didn’t get a pink slip, given that I was the last principal hired,” Gastall told The Herald News on Thursday.

The town has moved to close Wilbur Elementary School and instead eliminate Zachary Waddicor’s principal job.

Gastall, a principal for 19 years, said, “I sat at meetings and I just didn’t feel right about it.”

He said Waddicor was hired the year before he was.

“That could give him a job. That’s the No. 1 reason” for leaving, Gastall said.

“The opportunity presented itself in Westport,” he said, where he was told school officials were “at a stalemate” selecting a new elementary principal.

“A big part of me is sad to go. It seems like the thing to do,” he said.

Westport Superintendent Ann Marie Dargon, who is in charge of hiring school principals, could not be reached Thursday for comment.

Mosley was not available for comment. The finalists were in Reading on Thursday for an interview process with a 15-member screening committee. Later that night, the community in an open format was scheduled to interview the candidates, including three assistant principals from Massachusetts high schools.

In Greenfield, the current superintendent, Susan Hollins, is retiring, leaving that position open.

The town’s search committee plans to conduct site visits the second week in April and finalist interviews in the last week of April, according to reports. The posted salary is $135,000 and negotiable.

According to an on-line story published in The Recorder on Wednesday, all four finalists are certified as superintendents in Massachusetts.

Mosley’s salary as Somerset Berkley Regional High School principal is $104,000.

The Somerset K-8 School Committee this year voted not to renew the contract of its nine-year superintendent, Richard Medeiros, who was hired two weeks ago to be superintendent of the Freetown-Lakeville Regional School District.

Page 2 of 2 - Medeiros starts the job July 1.

A search committee for a combination K-8 superintendent-business manager has begun the hiring process and has received 25 applications by last week’s deadline. The head of the committee declined to say if there were any in-house candidates.

The pending changes also come at a time when the May 12 town election is around the corner and several veteran school committee members on the regional and K-8 boards are not seeking re-election: Donald Rebello, Jamison Souza and Elizabeth White of Somerset and George Kelly of Berkley.

The regional district’s new $82 million high school is scheduled to open in September.